From cuckoo clock to Omega
BERN, Switzerland. The Swiss do not make cuckoo clocks; those are made in Black Forest, Germany.
Cuckoo clocks are handmade,and consequently aren’t cheap. If you find one your like at very cheap price, it is more likely Made in China.
ALTSTADT. Kramerstrasse, the main avenue in the Old Town (Altstdt) of Bern, begins from the clock tower. Like most town clocks in Switzerland, it uses “IIII” for the numeral “4” instead of “IV” as we know the Roman numerals today.
One explanation is that the early Romans did not want the numeral “IV” to profane the god Jupiter, whose name was written “IVPITER”.
Further down in history, for the same reason the Sun King Louis of France declared that His Majesty be addressed in writing as LOUIS XIIII instead of LOUIS XIV.
To “V” or not to “V”? Proponents of this form also justified the symmetry of three sets: Numerals 1 to 4 in “I’s”, “numerals 5 to 8 in “V’s”, and numerals 9 to 12 in “X’s”).
Moreover, pundits explain that the populace which was illiterate would take more time to subtract than to add (ergo IIII instead of IV and VIIII instead of IX.
Comelec may have the better explanation: The early Romans did not have universal suffrage and couldn’t comprehend “dagdag-bawas” like IV for 4, VI for 6; and IX for 9, XI for 11.
OMEGA MUSEUM. The Omega museum in Biel (Bienne in French) will add to a rich lode on the timepiece. The first wrist watch was supposed to have made in1571 for the Queen of England. But it was not until the19th century that watchmakers realized the possibilities.
Early versions of wrist watches had the winding screws on either beside the 3 o’clock or on the 9 o’clock side, deeding on whether the wearer was right-handed or left-handed.
The museum has several exhibits of timepieces, including the Omega worn at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy gifted by US Ambassador Grant, the watches of Queen Soraya, King Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, etc.
Omega has timed several Olympic Games and introduced innovations to surmount human error, e.g., hooking the starting gun to the watch for races, touch bars for the finish lines for swimmers.
Like the famous saying about the Swiss being “seguristas” (may sinturon na, may terante pa), Omega connected camera to the finish line tape.
FOOTNOTE: In the 70’s, the Swiss near monopoly on watches received a rude wake-up call when the Japanese (Seiko and Citizen) successfully marketed the quartz. (The quartz was actually a Swiss innovation, but the conservative Swiss watch manufacturers disregarded its potential. Deja vu of American discovery of the transistor, with which the Japanese leap-frogged to overtake RCA and US radio tubes).
The Swiss watch industry went into free fall (90,000 jobs lost) and the government and Swiss banks (which have huge investments in the watch industry) had to step in to save it. It took Nicholas Hayek and the introduction of an innovative Swatch to regain the market share of the popular market and the creative marketing genius to promote the snob appeal and cachet of high-end mechanical watches over the cheaper and more accurate quartz.
(BTW, the Swatch Group is the holding company of several brands -- Blancpain, Omega, Longines, Rado, Tissot, Certina, Mido, Hamilton, Pierre Balmain, Calvin Klein, Flik Flak, Breguet, and Lanco. Something like Zara owning several Saville Row bespoke tailors.)
BRAGGING RIGHTS. The Omega Speedmaster is the preferred wristwatch of astronauts and cosmonauts. It is the first wristwatch to arrive at the moon and certified waterproof to the depths of the Sea of Tranquility.
When told that, besides surviving 10 G’s at take-off en route to outer space, some Omega Speedmaster models may also cost as much as 10 grand, Gary Lising exclaimed, “Omegad!” FEEDBACK: joseabetozaide@gmail.com